Today is Saturday, Aug. 15, the 227th day of 2015 with 138 to follow.
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn and Venus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in 1769; Scottish novelist Walter Scott in 1771; longtime Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey in 1859; British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in 1875; actor Ethel Barrymore in 1879; novelist Edna Ferber in 1885; songwriter Charles Tobias (“Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree”) in 1898; composer Ned Washington in 1901; bandleader Hugo Winterhalter in 1909; chef Julia Child in 1912 ; activist Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1917; actor Huntz Hall (“Dead End Kids”) in 1920; actor Rose Marie in 1923 (age 92); conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly in 1924 (age 91); actor Mike Connors in 1925 (age 90); actor Jim Dale in 1935 (age 80); civil rights leader Vernon Jordan Jr. in 1935 (age 80); U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer in 1938 (age 77); journalist Linda Ellerbee in 1944 (age 71); football Hall of Fame member/players’ union leader Gene Upshaw in 1945; songwriter Jimmy Webb in 1946 (age 69); Britain’s Princess Anne in 1950 (age 65); Swedish writer Stieg Larsson (the Millennium Trilogy) in 1954; chef Tom Colicchio in 1962 (age 53); actor Debi Mazar in 1964 (age 50); actor Debra Messing in 1968 (age 47); actor Ben Affleck in 1972 (age 43); Olympic beach volleyball champion Kerri Walsh Jennings in 1978 (age 37); pop singer Joe Jonas in 1989 (age 26); actor Jennifer Lawrence in 1990 (age 25).
On this date in history:
In 1914, a U.S. ship sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, officially opening the Panama Canal.
In 1935, humorist Will Rogers and pilot Wiley Post were killed when their plane crashed in Alaska.
In 1947, India and Pakistan won independence from Great Britain.
In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, often described as a landmark counterculture event, opened on Max Yasgur’s farm near Bethel, N.Y., drawing an estimated 400,000 people for three days of music.
In 1985, South African President P.W. Botha, rejecting Western pleas to abolish apartheid, declared, “I am not prepared to lead white South Africans and other minority groups on a road to abdication and suicide.”
In 2003, Libya admitted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that claimed 270 lives and agreed to pay reparations totaling $2.7 billion.
In 2004, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez survived a referendum to oust him.
In 2007, an 8-magnitude earthquake struck 90 miles southeast of Lima, Peru, killing an estimated 500 people and injuring hundreds more.
In 2008, Nepal elected a Maoist candidate, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, to be its next prime minister, defeating a man who held the post three times.
In 2010, China’s economy moved past Japan’s in the second quarter of 2010 to become the second largest in the world, trailing only the United States.
In 2012, a Gallup poll indicated Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney received no appreciable boost after naming U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), R-Wis., as his running mate.
In 2013, Egyptian authorities said the death toll had surpassed 600 in violence that began with a crackdown on protesting supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
In 2014, Pope Francis celebrated his first mass in South Korea. He spoke out about materialism and economic inequality during the “Mass of the Assumption of Mary.”
A thought for the day: “Beauty is not in the face, beauty is a light in the heart.” — Khalil Gibran
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